Both Governor K Rosaiah and the state's Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni have been accused of acting in favour of the ruling AIADMK.

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Amarnath K. Menon

Chennai

May 27, 2016

UPDATED: May 27, 2016 15:30 IST

File photo of Tamil Nadu Governor Konjeti Rosaiah. (PTI)

Tamil Nadu Governor Konjeti Rosaiah has kicked up a row by writing to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to advance elections to June 1 to two assembly constituencies that were deferred following complaints about political parties and contestants luring voters with cash. Both Governor Rosaiah and the state's Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni have been accused of acting in favour of the ruling AIADMK. PMK chief S. Ramadoss is demanding that the central government should remove Rosaiah and the ECI dismiss Lakhoni.

EARLY POLLS RECOMMENDED

Rosaiah wrote on Thursday to the Chief Election Commissioner "recommending the conduction of the elections to Thanjavur and Aravakurichi constituencies as early as possible preferably before June 1 in public interest and in the interest of all the concerned parties. His controversial letter follows a meeting he had with the Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer over representations from ruling AIADMK contestants V. Senthi Balaji and M. Rengaswamy in the two constituencies, who met the Governor earlier on May 22, claiming that the ECI had deferred polls in the constituencies without any authority of law and without the consent of the Governor. However, the ECI deferred the polls following evidence of large scale bribery of voters by the AIADMK in both the constituencies and the DMK in Aravakurichi. In fact, petitions filed by the PMK and the BJP contestants in these constituencies seeking postponement of polls are pending in the Madras High Court.

In the election process, the Governor is only an instrument of administration and he has no powers to interfere in the process. The ECI alone has the powers to take decisions regarding the conduct of elections. In 1993, when the then Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshan postponed the by election in the Kalka constituency in Haryana, the Punjab - Haryana High Court declared that postponement was invalid. However, the Supreme Court gave its verdict in favour of the Election Commission. As such, the Governor has no powers to recommend to the EC the date of polling," Ramadoss said in a statement.

GOVERNOR SOUNDS CONFIDENT

Rosaiah considered the petitions and the detailed report of the ECI in the light of relevant provisions contained in the Representation of People Act and the Constitution as well as the observations in the Supreme Court's 1966 judgement in Bhim Singh vs ECI case and the 1984 judgement of a Constitution bench in the ECI vs Haryana case. He also considered the fact that postponement of elections in the two constituencies would deprive the statutory rights of the members elected from them to vote in the June 11 Rajya Sabha elections.

GOVERNOR EXCEEDS HIS BRIEF

The Governor's action is being viewed as an excess of one constitutional authority and infringing on the rights of another - the ECI. "The Governor has written the letter either due to his lack of knowledge of the Constitutional provisions regarding conduct of elections or due to the wrong interpretation of the Representation of the People's Act and Supreme Court judgements on this issue that was presented to him," argues social activist and former civil servant M.G. Devasahayam who is the Convenor of the Forum for Electoral Integrity that had consistently pursued a campaign to bring to book those who flout laws and bribe voters in the run up to the May 16 polls in the state.

In Devasahayam's letter to Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and the other election commissioners, the Forum has called upon the ECI "to ignore this unnecessary intervention by the Governor without locus standi" and act in the interest of democracy by countermanding or cancelling these elections and also disqualify the candidates who had resorted to distribution of money to bribe the voters.

THE CONTROVERSY

"The Supreme Court judgement quoted in the letter - Bhim Singh versus Election Commission of India, 1996 - is totally out of context to the situation in Tamil Nadu where the postponement has been done due to bribery and corrupt practices indulged in by political parties and candidates," explains Devasahayam. "Besides, the judgement itself categorically upholds the powers of the Election Commission to fix the date of the poll or take any other decision to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections." He points out that the intervention of the Governor is both without jurisdiction and not in the interest of electoral integrity which is the prime responsibility of the EC.

The AIADMK contestants in their representations to the Governor contended that "the alleged corrupt practices relied upon by the ECI to defer the elections can be tested before a court of law," but deferring of the polls will shorten the tenure of the member who may be elected. ECI had first deferred the elections to May 23 and then, on May 21, put it off further to June 13 to allow its teams to ascertain whether polls can be allowed in the 'vitiated atmosphere.'

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu's election authorities have prepared a report for the ECI as to how politicians distributed cash for votes using goons, milk vendors and newspaper boys. ECI's network received 5,825 complaints of party men distributing cash for votes, of which 5,463 were accepted. Police have acted on 90 per cent of the serious complaints and about 60 cases are pending.